On the eve of the biggest match of his life, James Milner has been recalling how his early days at Leeds United prepared him for his illustrious, trophy laden 16-year career

Milner's Liverpool side take on Real Madrid in the Champions League final on Saturday evening, with the former Whites prodigy looking to add the European Cup to his Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup medals.

The Leeds-born star made his debut as a 16-year-old and would become the Premier League's youngest ever scorer when he netted against Sunderland on Boxing Day in 2002.

He would go onto make more than 50 appearances for the Whites before Leeds' financial problems forced them to sell him to Newcastle in 2004.

Since then he has gone to earn 61 England caps and win the league with Manchester City before joining Liverpool, who have made it to the Champions League final in Kiev.

And in an interview with the Times, Milner has credited some of the senior players at Leeds for helping him deal with the pressure of becoming a first-teamer at such a young age.

"Coming through at 16 I had to grow up very quickly, there was a lot of turmoil at Leeds. I was doing my GCSEs and, four months later, I'm playing in the Premier League. It's pretty ridiculous when you look back.

"I had very good senior players who looked after me Dom Matteo, Mark Viduka and learnt a lot from them, like always being careful with the media, learning from other people's mistakes and scandal, and learning that words can be spun in an interview out of a perfectly innocent comment, so that's why I have always been defensive."

Mark Viduka was one of the players Milner looked up to

Milner also discussed his Twitter account, which he opened earlier this year and uses to mock the 'boring James Milner' reputation that he had picked up over the years.

"Maybe people thought I actually was boring and didn't have a personality. Now they know more about me, and see I'm comfortable to make a joke about Ribena. Maybe that has coincided with having an OK season."

Being a footballer on social media will usually bring about its fair share of trolls, but Milner has so far enjoyed his time on there.

"Touch wood, things have been going all right since I've been on it. Ask me again in a year." It's all his own work. "It's all me. I have help from a friend in editing certain images, because I don't have the ability."